Western Knife Restoration / Scratch Removal

[Troutfrenzy]

I have a western brand fixed blade, that was my grandfathers. I'd like to bring this back to life - there are some very light scratches on the face of the knife. Any suggestions on how to remove these? They are very faint, and cannot be felt with a fingernail.

 

[pholder]

If your grandfather was responsible for those scratches, each one has a story. There are some fine members here who will be able to instruct you on the scratch removal . I am a sentimental old fool who would leave it as is, I would not want to erase my grandfather’s memories

 

[Arathol]

If you are going to use it, don't worry about it. I could never understand why people think a knife has to have a blemish free mirror finish. Thats not how they were when they were new. These knives were made to be used, and using a knife will inevitably cause scratches along with color changes from oxidation. Neither one of those will change the function of the knife.

 

[Boattale]

It's your knife now so if you want it polished by all means proceed. Your best bet will be with a cloth wheel on a bench grinder with some red rouge. But be careful while you're doing it.

 

[Troutfrenzy]

P pholder Unfortunately I was the one who put the scratches in, I was a dumb kid when I tried to sharpen the knife.... Hence the reason for me wanting to restore lol

 

[Bill DeShivs]

The only way to remove scratches, is to remove everything around the scratches to below the depth of the scratch.
While you might be able to accomplish the task, if you want it done correctly have a professional polish the blade. A buffing wheel with red rouge will not do it.

 

[Arathol]

P pholder Unfortunately I was the one who put the scratches in, I was a dumb kid when I tried to sharpen the knife.... Hence the reason for me wanting to restore lol

Those scratches can be easily removed with a little elbow grease, some patience and some very fine emery paper. Start with something like 400, work slowly, and graduate up through various grit sizes to maybe 3000 or higher until the scratches are gone. If you really want it to shine, you can polish it using a piece of leather charged with polishing compound on a flat board.
A rag wheel will polish the knife, but also it can soften / remove the edges and grind lines. Doing it by hand will help preserve the original appearance.
An example of what can actually be done to clean a blade in this manner-
I found the knife in this condition -

After a bit of effort, it looks like this-

 

[Guy McVer]

The way to remove scratches is to make more scratches... with an appropriately coarse piece of sandpaper. Once the original scratches blend in with your new scratches, move to a slightly less coarse grit of sandpaper and keep sanding. Gradually work your way to finer and finer grits until the surface of the blade is almost completely smooth looking again. Then polish it with flitz metal polish or a similar product to finish it off.

There are youtube videos that go through this process, and that's where I learned it from. I like to wear nitrile gloves when using flitz, but I guess it's not really necessary because it is supposed to be non toxic.

You may be tempted to just focus your sanding on one area of the blade, but this is a bad idea. You need to sand the whole surface so it's even. If you only sand in one spot then you'll end up with an uneven dip in the surface of the metal.

Once you're done, you'll probably need to resharpen the knife.

 

[eveled]

You really want to try it on a different blade. Figure out the technique and products that work for you. There is a learning curve.